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Mitre -Ramirez, Norma From: Ed Murashie < Sent: Tuesday, October 3, 2017 12:37 PM To: eComment Subject: City Trees Hello, this is my public comment that I will be delivering in person at tonight's City Council meeting. Sincerely, Ed Good evening City Council and staff. I am here tonight in support of ETAC and want to highlight a few details about our city trees and ask for your support of their proper maintenance. There are approximately 2200 trees in the medians and there is one watering truck with a crew of two that deep waters them. At a 40 hour work week that's 2400 minutes and let's say they spend 5 minutes per tree, ideally they would get around to watering all the trees in 4.6 weeks. By the looks of the trees and articles like " http://www.deeproot.com/blog/blog-entries/how-much-should-you-water-your-tree " that is not enough. Even the city's guide at http://www.ci.santa-ana.ca.us/green/TreeProgram.asp tells you how to properly deep water a tree. BTW did you know Santa Ana has a Tree City designation and supposedly spends $2 per capita on trees yet has not replaced a single tree in over 4 years? Now regarding the law. Some in the city will tell you they can't turn on the water to the medians. They will tell you they need to dig up the medians, put down purple PVC pipes, buy reclaimed water from the City of Irvine and that is all too expensive. Well the truth is yes you can't use potable water to irrigate ornamental turf in public street medians but you can water drought tolerant plants and trees. Before Executive Order B-40-17 signed April 7th 2017 ending the state drought you could argue that watering would put us over the 25% mandated water use reduction but the new order rescinded that only leaving the no watering median grass clause. There was never an order barring watering trees. Public Works agrees with that statement and have changed out the sprinklers in five locations throughout Santa Ana and is properly watering trees in the medians. I am asking the city to continue with that practice throughout the city. The trees are a large investment and vital part of the environment let's not lose any more if we don't have too. Ed Murashie